Magiae Naturalis by John Baptista Porta.pdf - Gnomicon

But the body of a Crab-fish is strangely turned into a Scorpion. Pliny says, that while the Sun is in the sign Cancer,
if the bodies of those Fishes lie dead upon the land, they will be turned into Scorpions. Ovid says, if you take off the
Crab's arms, and hide the rest in the ground, it will be a Scorpion. There is also a;
"Creature that live but one day, bred in Vinegar."
day, they are called Homerobion, a Daysbird. So the;
"Pyrigones be generated in the fire,"
Certain little flying beasts, so called, because they live and are nourished in the fire, and yet they fly up and down in the
air. This is strange, but that is more strange, that as soon as ever they come out of the fire, into any cold air, presently
they die. Likewise,
"The Salamander is gendered of the water,"
For the Salamander itself genders nothing, neither is there any male or female among them, nor yet among Eels, nor
any kind else, which does not generate of themselves either egg or young, as Pliny notes. But now we will speak of a
most excellent generation, namely, how;
"Bees are generated of an Ox."
Aelianus writes, that Oxen are commodious many ways, among the rest, this is one excellent commodity, that being
dead, there may be generated of them a very profitable kind of creatures, namely Bees. Ovid says it, that as all
putrefied bodies are turned into some small living creatures, so Oxen putrefied do generate bees. Florentinus the
Grecian says, that Jubas King of Africa, taught how to make Bees in a wooden Ark. Democritus and Varro show a
cruel manner of making Bees in a house. But it is a very ready way. Chose a house ten cubits high, and ten cubits
broad, square every way. But let there be but one entrance into it, and four windows, on each side one. But in this
room an Ox, about two or three years old, let him be fat and fleshy. Then set to him a company of lusty fellow, to beat
him so cruelly, that they kill him with their cudgels, and break his bones withal. But they must take great heed that
they draw no blood of him, neither must they strike him too fiercely at the first. After this, stop up all the passages of
the Ox his nostrils, eyes, mouth, and necessary places of evacuation, with fine Linen Clouts besmeared with Pitch.
Then cast a great deal of Honey under him, being laid with his face upwards, and let them all go forth, and daub up the
door and the windows with thick Loam, so that no wind, nor air can get in. Three weeks after, open the room, and the
light and air come in, except there where the wind would blow in too violently. And when you see that the matter is
through cold, and has taken air enough, then shut up the door and windows as before. About eleven days after, open it
again, and you shall find the room full of Bees clotted together, and nothing of the Ox remaining, beside the horns, the
bones and the hair. They say that the kings of the companies are generated of the brain, the other of the flesh, but
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